News from the Heights

Le Moyne College to Host Talk at Palace Theater by Paul Rusesabagina

<p>SYRACUSE, N.Y. (For Immediate Release) … Le Moyne College will host a visit by Rwandan Paul Rusesabagina on Thursday, February 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Palace Theater on James Street. His talk is titled “A Lesson Yet to be Learned.”<br />
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Over the course of 100 days in 1994, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda. Hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina used his courage to shelter over a thousand refugees from certain death. His actions were portrayed by Don Cheadle in the Academy Award-nominated movie, “Hotel Rwanda.”<br />
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His story fast becoming a part of history, Rusesabagina has traveled the world with his message of hope, peace and “never again.” He has founded the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF), which provides support, care and assistance to children orphaned by, and women abused during, the genocide in Rwanda. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. <br />
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Rusesabagina was born June 15, 1954, at Murama-Gitarama in the Central-South of Rwanda; his parents were farmers. In 1962, he entered the Seventh Day Adventist College of Gitwe, a missionary school, and completed primary and secondary school there.<br />
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From 1975 to 1978, Rusesabagina attended the Faculty of Theology in Cameroon and, in January 1979, was employed by Sabena as a front office manager in their newly opened Hotel Akagera in the Akagera National Park. He was accepted into the Kenya Utaliii College in Nairobi in the hotel management course, which he started in early 1980 and finished in 1984 in Switzerland.<br />
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Back from Switzerland, Rusesabagina joined Sabena Hotels again as assistant general manager in the Milles Collines Hotel until November 1993, at which time he was promoted to general manager of the Diplomate Hotel.<br />
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For the 100 days of the genocide, Rusesabagina moved back to the Mille Collines Hotel. After the massacre calmed down slightly, he returned to the Diplomate Hotel where he stayed until September 1996. He then went to Belgium as a refugee. Rusesabagina has worked since then as a businessman and owns a transport company.<br />
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The talk is free and open to the public. In connection with Rusesabagina’s visit, Le Moyne College will host a screening of “Hotel Rwanda” on Tuesday, February 6, at 4 p.m. in the Reilley Room, located in Reilly Hall. The screening is also free and open to the public.<br />
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Rusesabagina’s visit is sponsored by the film program and the Center for Peace and Global Studies at Le Moyne, along with OFRC, Le Moyne Student Programming Board, African-American History Month Committee, the O'Connell Professorship, gender and women’s studies, the Film Club, the Political Science Academy, the political science department, the Honors Program, the Lecture Committee, the religious studies department, the history department, and the philosophy department. For more information, call 445-4292.</p>posted on: 1/30/2007

ThinkProgress.org includes Le Moyne as one of 11 institutions across the country that "...are taking concrete steps to amend their policies, expand their training programs, and let new students know they want to improve" as it relates to sexual assaults.